TRAI backs net neutrality, will impose stiff penalties on companies adopting differential pricing

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has ruled in favor of net neutrality by opposing differential pricing. It has just been reported that TRAI has stated that companies will be barred from charging or offering data traffic on a discriminatory basis. Service providers flaying this ruling will be subject to a fine of Rs 50,000 per day, up to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh.

TRAI has also ruled that service providers will be barred from entering into any arrangement of contract that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for the resulting data services.

To tackle the issue differential pricing of data services, TRAI had released a paper inviting public opinion on the subject, an exercise that netted a record 2.4 million comments.

Subsequently on 21 Jan, the TRAI had conducted an open house discussion on this very subject during which time it heard opinions and arguments from parties that were both pro and anti differential pricing.

Immediately preceding this hearing, TRAI had sent a strongly-worded letter to Facebook in which TRAI Joint Adviser K.V. Sebastian systematically countered the allegations leveled by Facebook regarding the manner in they prompted users to pledge support to their Free Basics campaign.

Countries such as Chile, Netherlands, Brazil and America have already adopted net neutrality that prevents discrimination of Internet content or charging users differently based on the web content, websites, or platform data is consumed on.